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Picnics & Barbecues

It’s summertime fun day on the Little Yellow Bicycle blog today. A few of the Biker Team members have put our heads together to come up with some festive projects for your next picnic or barbecue. If you are looking for unique and special party planning ideas for an outdoor gathering, you’re going to want to come check it out!

Yes, we’ve having a party today at Little Yellow Bicycle, and YOU are invited!

Now I love going to outdoor parties, but I’ve found that it can sometimes be hard to set up for such festivities, especially if it’s at all windy. Try to set up a stack of paper plates and napkins on a windy day and keep things from blowing away, and you’ll know what I mean. It can also be a bit difficult to hold onto a plate, napkin, cup, and utensils AND serve yourself through a buffet line, too. So I came up with a fun way to eliminate all those worries with these all-in-one place mat place settings. Now you can easily keep everything you need for food prep all in one place and concentrate on the good stuff……….the grub!

Of course I got a bit carried away with dressing up and embellishing my place settings. A girl likes to have a bit of fun, ya know, and for a small gathering, that’s perfectly okay. But I do have a few time saving tips for creating these in bulk for a bigger gathering, if that’s what you need. Either way, your guests are going to love these!

The back of the place mat is made from two panels of patterned paper, one 12×10 piece and one 4×10 piece, adhered side-by-side with a strong adhesive or tacky glue. The front pocket is made with two more panels that are 5″ in height. Carefully applying adhesive just around 3 sides of the pocket panels, attach the front pieces to create two separate pockets, one for the plate and one for the napkins and silverware. For quick construction needed in bulk, stop here. Tuck in your paper products, and you are good to go.

Or add a few more details for fancier settings. For mine, I added machine stitching, which helps add strength around the pockets, and a strip of patterned paper and trim across the center for fun. By overlapping two strips of paper, you can span the entire place mat easily. Die cuts from the Paper Crafting Kit add instant character and detail with literally no work. Here I tucked rosette-building border strips under the paper for a super simple scalloped edging. Leaves, flowers, and banners dress up the top of the place mats as well as the bow ties. I added a few chipboard shapes and finished off with die cut tags personalized for my party goers with Naturals cork alpha stickers.

Be sure to stop by the Little Yellow Bicycle blog to see more great picnics and barbecues ideas from the rest of the team. And thanks so much for stopping by today. Wishing you all a very wonderful day!

Only you, Audrey, could come up with such fantastic ideas! These are so cute and a perfect solution to keeping things in place. Love it! (p.s. I love those aqua colored glass bottles I spy in the background!) :)